Category: Blog

  • Don’t Let Perfection Be the Enemy of Productivity

    by Alice Boyes

    Recommended

    Productivity isn’t about getting more done. It’s about what you get done. Three aspects of perfectionism can interfere with your ability to prioritize the most important tasks.

    1. You’re reluctant to designate decisions as “unimportant.”

    There’s an argument that, for unimportant decisions, you should either decide quickly or outsource the decision. 

    But perfectionists have a hard time designating decisions as unimportant. They like to be in control of everything. Why? Because imperfections bother them more than they do other people. If something goes wrong, perfectionists might feel explosive frustration or a niggling sense of irritation that’s hard to ignore, and they don’t want to take that risk.

    Sometimes, perfectionists are so accustomed to micromanaging that it doesn’t even occur to them that any decision is unimportant. They’re blind to it. They habitually and automatically classify everything as worthy of their full effort.

    Solution: In modern life, decision fatigue can be intense. A perfectionist can learn to love giving up control over some choices if they pay attention to how good it feels to be relieved of the decision-making burden. Try using heuristics to quickly decide or delegate with the expectation that you will get much faster and pretty good decisions overall but not perfect ones. For instance, one of my heuristics is: if I’ve thought about doing something three times, I will get on and do it without further deliberating. For a useful decision-making matrix, see this tweet.

    2. You feel morally obligated to over-deliver.

    The belief that you need to beat expectations in any situation can manifest in many ways.

    Let’s say someone offers to pay you $1,000 for a service. If you’re a perfectionist, providing $1,000 of value might not seem like enough. You might think that you need to give what your competitors would charge $1,500 for because you want to outperform. You think: “If I don’t over-deliver, I’m under-delivering.” 

    Or if you judge that 24 hours is a respectable time frame in which to respond to a colleague’s email, you might set your own bar at within six hours. The key point is that you believe what’s generally reasonable doesn’t apply to you, and your own standard needs to be different.

    Sometimes this line of thinking comes from wanting an excessive cushion; for instance, you think “if I aim to deliver 1.5X or 2X value for all the services I provide, then I’m never going to under-deliver.” It can also be driven by anxiety, insecurity or imposter syndrome; for instance, you think the only way to prevent anyone from being disappointed or unhappy with you is by always exceeding expectations. Perfectionists also sometimes imagine there will be catastrophic consequences if they fail to over-deliver; for example, they worry a client won’t want to work with them if they take a day to answer an email request, even if it’s a non-urgent query and they’re happy with everything else.

    Solution: Have a plan for how you’ll course-correct if you notice these thought patterns. Understand what it’s costing you to always aim for out-performance. What else don’t you have time, energy, attention, and willpower for? Perhaps your own health, your big goals, or your family. If you assess that the costs are significant, try having a rule of thumb for when you’ll over-deliver. For instance, you might decide that in three out of ten situations in which you have the urge to do so, you will, but not in the other seven. 

    Situation-specific habits can help you, too. For instance, if a reporter sends me more than six questions for an article they’re working on, I’ll generally answer six or so questions in detail, and either minimally answer or skip the others. (I probably give better answers using this strategy because I focus on the areas in which I have the most interesting things to say.)

    3. You get excessively annoyed when you aren’t 100% consistent with good habits. 

    When perfectionists want to adopt new habits, they tend to fall into one of three categories. They bite off more than they can chew and their plans are too onerous to manage; they avoid starting any habit unless they’re 100% sure they can hit their goal everyday, which leads to procrastination; or they take on only those habits that they can stick to no matter what. 

    Flexibility is a hallmark of psychological health. You need to have the capacity to take a day off from the gym when you’re sick or just got off a late flight, even if it means breaking a streak. You should also be able to shift away from habits that were once important to your productivity or skills development but that you’ve outgrown. Maybe as a beginning blogger, you vowed to always post three times a week, but now that’s burning you out or, as a new real estate investor, you always attended a monthly meetup, but now you get little out of it. 

    Sometimes the more-disciplined behavior (deviating from an ingrained habit or pattern of behavior) looks like the less-disciplined one (taking a break). But when conventional self-discipline turns into compulsion, perfectionists may actually be held back by it.

    Solution: Have a mechanism in place for checking that you’re not sticking to a habit just because you’re worshiping at the altar of self-discipline. If you’ve never missed a workout in two years (or any other habit), it’s likely there were some days when getting it done wasn’t the best use of your time. Regularly review the opportunity cost of any activities or behaviors you diligently do to make sure they are currently the best use of your physical and mental energy.   

    Perfectionism is often driven by striving for excellence, but it can be self-sabotaging if it leads to sub-optimal behavior like continuing habits beyond their usefulness, over-delivering when you don’t have to, or overthinking every decision you make.

    Original Article appears here: https://hbr.org/2020/03/dont-let-perfection-be-the-enemy-of-productivity?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits

  • Sherpa Names Us As # 3 World Wide

    Sherpa Names Us As # 3 World Wide

    The prestigious Sherpa Annual Survey on Executive Coaching for 2014 names top five associations exclusively for executive coaches, the “Association of Corporate Executive Coaches” comes in at #3.
    SHERPA #2

  • How has Blogging Changed?

    Andy Crestodina

    By Andy Crestodina Share

    Five years ago on a summer day, we set out to learn more about this thing called blogging. We made a little survey, did a lot of outreach and eventually got 1000 bloggers to respond.

    You are now reading the 2019 Annual Blogging Survey. In it, you’ll find a goldmine of blogging statistics, data and trends. Together, the numbers tell the story of huge changes in blogging and content marketing.

    We’ll be answering…

    1. How long does it take to write a blog post?
    2. How long is the typical blog post?
    3. How frequently do bloggers publish?
    4. What content formats are bloggers using?
    5. What does the typical blog post include?
    6. How many draft headlines are bloggers writing?
    7. Are bloggers working with editors?
    8. How is your content typically promoted?
    9. How often do bloggers research keywords?
    10. Are bloggers using analytics?
    11. Is it part of your strategy to update older blog posts?
    12. Are bloggers getting results from their content?

    Here is a sample of the stats you’ll find:

    • The average blog post takes 3 hours and 57 minutes to write …up 65% from 2014
    • The average blog post is 1236 words long …56% longer than in 2014
    • 52% of bloggers report that it’s getting harder to get readers to engage with their content

    One of the final questions is about success, and we correlate that answer with the other answers, we can see what’s working today. Here is the summary, ordered by effectiveness. It shows not only shows which tactics are the most effective, but how few bloggers use them.

    Blogger summary- The least common blogging tactics are the most effective

    Note: “Strong results” data is self-reported and naturally depends on the goals of each blogger. Because results such as traffic, engagement and revenue vary widely across content programs, we did not ask bloggers to provide Analytics or revenue data. You’ll find more info about the methodology and data at the end of this report.

    Here are the final statistics, analysis and input from blogging and content marketing experts.

    1. How long does it take to write a blog post?

    The average blog post takes 3 hours and 57 minutes to write.

    The time invested in each article rises every year. This year the average time spent per post jumped 30 minutes and is up 65% since 2014.

    How long does it take to write a blog post_

    The data from 2014 to 2016 showed big drops in bloggers who spent two hours or less per article. This year we see big jumps in the percentage of bloggers who spend four hours or more.

    How long does it take to write a typical post_

    Does the extra time and effort pay off? Yes, bloggers who spend more time per post are the most likely to be successful. 38% percent of the bloggers who spend 6+ hours per article report “strong results” from blogging. Click To Tweet

    Percentage of bloggers who report “strong results” by time invested per post

    Note: 30% of bloggers reported “strong results.” That’s the benchmark. We’ll discuss this in the final section.

    2. How long is the typical blog post?

    The average blog post is 1236 words long.

    That’s 53% longer than six years ago. Articles keep getting longer, as bloggers invest more time and effort in long-form, detailed articles.

    Length of typical blog post

    Look closer and we see the big jump is in the 1500-2000 word range. It’s as if editors everywhere updated their guidelines for length from 1000 to 1500 words.

    How long is a typical blog post

    Compare the percentage of bloggers at the far ends of the spectrum. An approach that was once rare is now quite common.

    Percent of bloggers writing short vs. long posts

    Perhaps we’ve seen a tipping point in the awareness of the benefits of big content. Lots of studies have found a correlation between long-form content with higher rankings, greater social engagement and better results in general. Here’s one more: bloggers who write longer content are far more likely to report success. More than half of the bloggers who go big report “strong results” from blogging.

    Percentage of bloggers who report _strong results_ by average blog post word count
    Joe Pulizzi, Founder, CONTENT MARKETING INSTITUTE “In looking through the data, it’s almost like going into the past where longer, meatier articles were king, and each article took hours of time. This gives me hope for the future of content consumption. At least for blogging, snackable content is clearly dead. Audiences expect more, and bloggers are giving them better researched more advanced and well-thought-out content.”
    Gill Andrews, COPYWRITER AND WEB CONSULTANT “I am surprised by how much the average blog post length has increased over time. It either means that more bloggers have finally realized that they need to try harder to get results or that the reader’s expectations increased drastically. If it’s the latter, I wonder if that means that at some point in the future, small businesses won’t be able to blog at all, because they won’t have the resources to produce the content an average online reader expects.”
    Gini Dietrich, founder and author, SPINSUCKS “There are many days I complain about how I have six hours of meetings without time to pee or eat, let alone write or record a podcast. And then I read this survey that shows a significant number of bloggers now spend six hours writing one blog post. Six hours! ONE blog post. This means that kind of time, research, and collaboration results in cold, hard cash. So pack your desk drawer with protein-packed snacks and get to work!”

    3. How frequently do bloggers publish?

    About half of bloggers publish weekly or several times per month.

    Has the increase in time and length affected how often bloggers hit the publish button? Yes. There has been a steady decline in the “several per week” category since 2014.

    Around half of all bloggers publish 2-4 posts per month. That’s holding steady, but notice the jump in daily blogging.

    Is there a relationship between publishing frequency and results? Yes. Bloggers who write more (either in length or in frequency) are more likely to report strong results. But there seems to be a point of diminishing returns with frequency. Bloggers who publish daily are more likely to report strong results than bloggers who publish several times per day.

    Bloggers who report “strong results” based on publishing frequency

    4. What content formats are bloggers using?

    We’ve seen the size. Now let’s look at the shape of the content.

    • Practical, how-to content is dominant in content strategies.
    • About half of bloggers publish news. About half publish opinion.
    • Just one-third of bloggers use collaborative formats: round ups and interviews.
    Which content formats have you published in the last 12 months_

    Here is the correlation between content formats and blogging performance. This reinforces the previous findings about the value of in-depth, visual and collaborative content.

    • Most likely to succeed: Bloggers who create long-form guides, ebooks and original research
    • Least likely to succeed: Bloggers who publish news and opinion
    Bloggers who report “strong results” by content format

    Mega-Trend: Research on the rise

    Last year, 25% of bloggers added original research to their mix. Now we see a big jump up in that number. More bloggers are conducting and publishing original research as the word gets out about its effectiveness.

    • 35% of bloggers conduct and publish original research
    • 85% of bloggers who publish original research report some/strong results from blogging (39% of them report strong results)

    To gate or not to gate

    This year we asked if bloggers are putting content behind lead gen forms, requiring readers to give their email address prior to getting access. About one-third of bloggers do this, even though almost half of bloggers publish guides and ebooks.

    • 32% of bloggers gate content
    • 88% of bloggers who gate content report some/strong results from blogging (35% of them report strong results)

    5. What does the typical blog post include?

    Now let’s look at the features of specific articles, including images, video, statistics and contributor quotes. These statistics show how visual, scannable and collaborative blog posts are in general.

    The typical blog post includes the following elements

    When we check the correlation data, you can see which specific elements correlate with success when included in blog content.

    Bloggers who report “strong results” by content format

    You can see that video makes the biggest difference. We’ve seen the correlation between video and success grow year after year.

    Just how visual is blog content?

    Most bloggers add a few images to their content. But fewer than 10% of bloggers are producing very visual content with 7+ images per article. Does that sound high? The average article here on the Orbit Media blog includes 14 images, not including the author’s picture.

    How many images do you include in a typical post_

    There is a clear correlation between highly visual content and success. The more images a blogger adds to a typical article, the more likely they are to win at the content game.

    Percent of bloggers who report “strong results” based on number of images included in a typical post

    Just 3% of bloggers add 10+ images per article, but they are 2.5x more likely to report “strong results” than the average blogger.

    This along with the trends in video shows the importance of visuals. It shows just how visual blogging has become. Is blogging more about images or words? Are blogs post written or designed? It seems the more visual the content strategy, the more likely it is to succeed.

    Just how collaborative is blog content?

    Seeing the big trends of influencer marketing inspired us to ask about the popularity of collaborative content, which we define as content that includes contributor quotes, roundups or interviews. The response indeed shows that most bloggers do collaborate.

    • 32% of bloggers never collaborate
    • 1% of bloggers always collaborate
    How often do your posts involve influence collaboration_v2

    Is there a correlation between collaboration and success? Yes. The more often bloggers collaborate with influencers, the more likely they are to report “strong results.”

    Bloggers who report “strong results” based on influencer collaboration

    Here at Orbit, as a rule, each article we write includes a contributor quote from at least one expert. Just as a journalist wouldn’t publish an article without a source, we would never publish an article without an expert POV.

    6. How many draft headlines are bloggers writing?

    The average blogger writes four headlines before selecting one.

    Everyone sweats over headlines, or so we assume. As an all-important element for blog posts, it’s worth the extra attention. After hearing that some content teams consider 20+ headlines before selecting one, we decided to pose the question.

    We see that most bloggers write a couple of headlines before choosing one and a tiny percentage are writing more than ten. Fewer than 1% of bloggers write 20+ draft headlines per article.

    How many headlines do you write for a typical post_

    Yet bloggers who consider more headlines are far more likely to report success. Very few bloggers are doing the thing that correlates with results.

    Bloggers who report “strong results” based on number of draft headlines written per article
    Ann Handley, Cheif content officer, MARKETING PROFS “We all recognize the value of a great headline. Well done, us! Now let’s spend as much time thinking about the first line of a piece. PRO TIP: Write as many first lines as you do headlines. Why? Because the headline makes a reader click. And the first line makes them actually read the piece.”

    7. Are bloggers working with editors?

    30% of bloggers have a formal process for editing.

    For our final question about process, we ask about working with editors. Most bloggers edit their own work or get “a second set of eyes” on their content before publishing. Only 30% have a formal process for editing. That’s way up from five years ago when just 1 in 10 bloggers had a formal process.

    Are bloggers working with editors_

    Bloggers with a formal editing process were about 50% more likely to report strong results. Working with multiple editors doesn’t seem to make strong outcomes more likely. And bloggers who edit their own seem to be doing pretty well.

    Bloggers who report “strong results” based on editing process

    Another tip from Ann: “Behind every decent writer is a fantastic editor! If you want to be a better writer… get yourself a great editor to work with you.”

    8. How is your content typically promoted?

    Social media, of course. But just one in five bloggers uses influencer outreach and paid promotion.

    Obviously, the fast, easy and cheap promotion channel is the most popular. Virtually all bloggers share their content on social media. Two-thirds use search and email, both of which have become much more popular over the last five years.

    • The percentage of bloggers using email marketing has increased 2x since 2014
    • The percentage of bloggers using paid promotion has increased 3x since 2014
    • 1 in 5 bloggers leverages influencers to help drive traffic (that’s down from two years ago)
    • 1 in 5 bloggers buys traffic (that’s leveled off after a dramatic rise)
    Bloggers who report “strong results” based on editing process

    Let’s see what’s working. The less popular promotion channels are more strongly correlated with success. This may be because they are more difficult (or expensive) and this is another example of hard work paying off.

    Bloggers who report “strong results” based on how they drive traffic to their posts

    9. How often do bloggers research keywords?

    Half of bloggers research keywords for the majority of their content.

    As SEO has grown in popularity and importance, keyword research as a skill and practice has become more common. Most bloggers do it sometimes. Half of all bloggers do it most of the time.

    How often do you research keywords for your posts_

    It’s work that pays off. The more the blogger researches keywords, the more likely they are to report success. Bloggers who are also SEOs report “strong results” at much higher than average rates.

    Bloggers who report “strong results” based on keyphrase research

    10. Are bloggers using analytics?

    Half of bloggers usually check the analytics for a post. The other half check occasionally, rarely or never.

    The trend here is mostly flat. Use of Analytics has remained steady for years. But it remains one of the big indicators of blogging performance. Bloggers who measure the performance of every post are far more likely to report “strong results” than the average blogger.

    If they aren’t using analytics, you have to wonder how they even know if they’re getting results.

    How often do bloggers check their analytics_
    Bloggers who report “strong results” by frequency of checking Analytics
    Jay Baer, luminary, CONVINCE AND CONVERT “What’s most interesting to me is the combination of expanded blog post length and corresponding time spent per post with the decline in attention paid to Analytics and keyword research. It’s remarkable to me that bloggers would spend nearly 4 hours to craft an 1800 word post, yet only 57% of them check their analytics with any degree of frequency and only about 50% of the time are they actually thinking about keywords when writing that post. If I was going to spend four hours on something, I would want to make sure that I had a measurement and success schema identified before I wrote the first of those 1800 words.”

    11. Is it part of your strategy to update older blog posts?

    Two-thirds of bloggers update previously published blog posts.

    An obvious trend has emerged since we started asking this question a few years ago. Nearly 70% of bloggers now report going back to older content and making updates.

    Is it part of your strategy to update old posts_
    ian cleary, founder, RAZOR SOCIAL “Updating old content is an essential part of any online strategy so it’s good to see that this year the percentage of people updating old content. It’s great for SEO, especially when combined with keyword research, adding more media and careful internal linking.”

    Ian’s right. Updating old content appears to be an SEO tactic. Bloggers who research keywords are 3x more likely to update old posts. It’s a powerful way to improve rankings and search traffic quickly. Also, bloggers who publish news and original research are more likely to update old posts. Makes sense.

    This is another of those tactics that have a very strong correlation with success. Bloggers who update old posts are 2x more likely to report success.

    • 35% of bloggers who update old content report “strong results”
    • 16% of bloggers who do not update old content report “strong results”

    12. Are bloggers getting results from their content?

    Most bloggers are getting results, but just 30% are getting strong results.

    We’ve seen this correlated with other statistics throughout the survey. Now here’s the raw data on success. Naturally, the definition of success varies as bloggers have a wide range of goals, from rankings to revenue, likes to leads.

    If you put 10 bloggers in a room…

    • 5 would report getting some results
    • 3 would report strong results
    • 1 would report disappointing results
    • 1 wouldn’t even know if they’re getting results
    Which of the following best applies to your blog_

    Is there a trend here? No. These numbers have changed very little over the last four years.

    Bonus: What are the biggest blogging challenges?

    This year we added a few questions about the challenges. What is the hardest thing about blogging. The most common answer is personal: finding time.

    What are your biggest blogging challenges_

    We included an “other” category and gave respondents the opportunity to add their own answers. The most common responses were related specifically to business blogging: getting internal buy-in and measurement/attribution.

    The challenges are timeless, but when we ask bloggers what’s getting harder now, we see where the headwinds are coming from.

    “It’s getting hard to…”
    Henneke Duistermaat, ENCHANTING MARKETING “If reader engagement feels like your biggest challenge, it’s worth asking yourself whether your content strategy needs fine-tuning. Do you have a clear idea who your ideal reader is and how you can help them solve their problems, answer their questions and achieve their aims? Is the traffic to your site relevant? Are you writing to engage your reader or to impress Google? How human is your writing?”
    Robert Rose, founder, THE CONTENT ADVISORY “It’s no surprise, but it’s very refreshing to see the quantity and quality challenge expressed in such contrast. Time spent on each post is up. Length and exploration of depth is up. And the biggest mentioned challenge to not only attract attention but hold it. A loud noise gets your attention – but it’s what kind of noise you’re making that determines whether people stay and listen.”

    Bloggers are struggling with search and social more than email marketing. This is probably because search and social are dominated by digital monopolies, which control user experience. Google and Facebook have reduced clickthrough rates to websites in order to keep visitors on their platforms. But email isn’t owned by anyone. There’s no intermediary between the blogger and their audience. Bloggers are reporting an easier time.

    Most bloggers (54%) are finding it harder to keep visitors engaged with content. It’s a constant struggle. The signals that indicate that a reader is connecting with the post aren’t looking good.

    Two key takeaways

    There are a few big themes here. There seem to be two main factors that are the strongest indicators of success: depth and consistency.

    Deep Content

    Bloggers who do more are getting better results. These are the bloggers most likely to report success:

    • Bloggers who write 2000+ words
    • Bloggers who include 10+ images per post
    • Bloggers who consider 20+ headlines

    Consistent Performance

    Bloggers who are more consistent are getting better results. These are the bloggers most likely to report success:

    • Bloggers who always research keywords report strong results
    • Bloggers who always collaborate on content report strong results
    • Bloggers who always check Analytics report strong results

    These tactics are so effective because bloggers are using them every time.

    Methodology and Data

    The respondents to this survey are self-described bloggers that we connected with over many years on social media and at live events. The data set is heavily populated with my network, which skews toward LinkedIn users, B2B marketers and people in the US. Responses were gathered from July through September 2019.

    No one was incentivized to take the survey. This is a survey of bloggers (individuals), not companies or brands (groups). Here are the three ways we gathered responses along with our estimates for their contribution:

    1. Email to past respondents (30% of responses)
    2. Social media and shares by influencers (30% of responses)
    3. Individual outreach through messages and email (40% of responses)

    Original article appears here: https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/blogging-statistics/?utm_source=october17-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=blogger-survey-2019

  • Be The Change

    https://www.slideshare.net/meecoinstitute/culture-transformation-are-you-ready

  • If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?

    New research suggests personality has a larger effect on success than IQ.

    How much is a child’s future success determined by innate intelligence? Economist James Heckman says it’s not what people think. He likes to ask educated non-scientists—especially politicians and policy makers—how much of the difference between people’s incomes can be tied to IQ. Most guess around 25 percent, even 50 percent, he says. But the data suggest a much smaller influence: about 1 or 2 percent.

    So if IQ is only a minor factor in success, what is it that separates the low earners from the high ones? Or, as the saying goes: If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?

    Science doesn’t have a definitive answer, although luck certainly plays a role. But another key factor is personality, according to a paper Heckman co-authored in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He found financial success was correlated with conscientiousness, a personality trait marked by diligence, perseverance and self-discipline.

    To reach that conclusion, he and colleagues examined four different data sets, which, between them, included IQ scores, standardized test results, grades and personality assessments for thousands of people in the U.K., the U.S. and the Netherlands. Some of the data sets followed people over decades, tracking not just income but criminal records, body mass index and self-reported life satisfaction.

    The study found that grades and achievement-test results were markedly better predictors of adult success than raw IQ scores. That might seem surprising—after all, don’t they all measure the same thing? Not quite. Grades reflect not just intelligence but also what Heckman calls “non-cognitive skills,” such as perseverance, good study habits and the ability to collaborate—in other words, conscientiousness. To a lesser extent, the same is true of test scores. Personality counts.

    Heckman, who shared a Nobel Prize in 2000 and is founder of the University of Chicago’s Center for the Economics of Human Development, believes success hinges not just on innate ability but on skills that can be taught. His own research suggests childhood interventions can be helpful, and that conscientiousness is more malleable than IQ. Openness—a broad trait that includes curiosity—is also connected to test scores and grades.

    IQ still matters, of course. Someone with an IQ of 70 isn’t going to be able to do things that are easy for a person with an IQ of 190. But Heckman says many people fail to break into the job market because they lack skills that aren’t measured on intelligence tests. They don’t understand how to behave with courtesy in job interviews. They may show up late or fail to dress properly. Or on the job, they make it obvious they’ll do no more than the minimum, if that.

    John Eric Humphries, a co-author of the paper, says he hoped their work could help clarify the complicated, often misunderstood notion of ability. Even IQ tests, which were designed to assess innate problem-solving capabilities, appear to measure more than just smarts. In a 2011 study, University of Pennsylvania psychologist Angela Duckworth found that IQ scores also reflected test-takers’ motivation and effort. Diligent, motivated kids will work harder to answer tough questions than equally intelligent but lazier ones.

    Teaching personality or character traits in school wouldn’t be easy. For one thing it’s not always clear whether more of a trait is always better. The higher the better for IQ, and perhaps for conscientiousness as well. But personality researchers have suggested the middle ground is best for other traits — you don’t want to be so introverted that you can’t speak up, or so extroverted that you can’t shut up and listen.

    What does any of this have to do with economics? “Our ultimate goal is to improve human well-being,” Heckman says, and a major determinant of well-being comes down to skills.

    A newer study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour focused on the flip side of success: hardship. After following some 1,000 New Zealanders for more than 30 years, researchers concluded that tests of language, behavioral skills and cognitive abilities taken when children were just three years old could predict who was most likely to need welfare, commit crimes, or become chronically ill.

    The lead author of that paper, Duke University psychologist Terrie Moffitt, says she hopes the results would foster compassion and help, not stigma. Her results also suggested that helping people improve certain kinds of skills before they’re out of diapers would benefit everyone.

    Faye Flam is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She has written for the Economist, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Psychology Today, Science and other publications. She has a degree in geophysics from the California Institute of Technology. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners. For more columns from Bloomberg Opinion, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/opinion.

  • What High-Performance Workplaces Do Differently

    by Rob DeSimone

    December 12, 2019

    Employees now look to their workplace for purpose and development Companies that create a high-development culture achieve high performance Learn four development strategies to retain your best employees You’ve heard of high-performance workplaces, but how do they become “high-performance”? Gallup has discovered that one of the most important factors in creating a high-performance workplace is instilling a high-development culture: one that values the growth of individuals. Organizations that have made a strategic investment in employee development, Gallup finds, report 11% greater profitability and are twice as likely to retain their employees. It makes sense. High-achieving people (the ones who can grow your company) seek development. And all employees have a psychological need to learn and grow as human beings. Development at work satisfies two of the five essential elements of well being by fulfilling a person’s drive for career and social well being. Having a sense of purpose makes people feel great about what they do at work and helps them enrich and deepen their relationships outside of it.

    Nearly nine in 10 millennials say professional development or career growth opportunities are very important to them in a job. “Career growth opportunities” is the No. 1 reason people give for changing jobs. People need to be connected and involved in their workplace, and they want to be when that workplace offers them not only purpose, but also employee training and development. How to Create a High-Development Culture Perspective Paper Employee Engagement: Maximizing Employee Potential Learn how to build a high-development workplace culture driven by engagement that improves productivity, performance and profitability. Creating a high-development culture means more than adding a few learning programs and development plans to the roster. Here are four strategies that set the highest-performing workplaces apart:

    1. They protect their investment in employee development with a focus on increasing employee engagement. Many leaders fear that they will invest in their employees’ development only to see them walk out the door anyway. This does happen — but the best way to keep it from happening is to secure people’s psychological commitment through an employee engagement strategy. Organizations can foster commitment and improve engagement by meeting employees’ basic needs with clear expectations, sincere recognition, the right materials and equipment — and the rest of the 12 elements we outline in our employee engagement practices. People won’t stay with an organization or perform at their best — even if they’re given lots of development and learning opportunities — if they’re not engaged in their work and committed to the company. Read more about building a high-development culture through employee engagement.

    2. They avoid the most common misunderstanding about development. Companies have typically defined growth and development as a promotion. While effective development may involve a promotion, it doesn’t have to. Often, the employees who are really good at what they’re currently doing don’t necessarily want to be promoted — but they still want growth. From Gallup’s extensive workplace research, development should primarily be: A process of understanding each person’s unique talents (naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied) and finding roles, positions and projects that allow them to combine their talents and abilities with experiences to build strengths (the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance in a specific activity). Giving people the opportunity to understand themselves, develop what they’re good at and use their strengths every day at work can be more fulfilling than a new title for most of your employees. Gallup research shows that when employees know and use their strengths, they are more engaged (nearly six times more), have higher performance and are much less likely to leave their company. NEW BOOK It’s the Manager Learn why the manager is key to every aspect of your workplace.

    3. Their managers are highly involved in the development of individuals — they act as coaches, not bosses. The manager is the vessel that makes culture change and engagement a reality. Managers are closer than HR or leadership to employees’ daily realities, so they’re more likely to understand how to develop employees and engage them. And since people are more likely to learn and grow when they receive immediate feedback that is specific and targeted to their development, managers become the perfect people to coach employees and link them to practical learning and action. Learn more about the importance of the manager in employee development.

    4. Their leadership owns the culture change (not HR alone). Culture change does not happen through all-hands meetings, emails, newsletters and strategy retreats. Consistent communication does help. But the fundamental driver of culture change is commitment from leadership to high-performance workplace practices that is backed by their actions. When C-level officers model a focus on development and put resources toward it, managers and employees will begin to mimic that focus on their own. This behavior change is foundational to making culture change stick. The Best Employees Will Always Seek Development A focus on developing people has the potential to outperform practices like Six Sigma in creating organic growth for companies. High-achieving employees continuously seek purpose and development — so if they’re engaged at your company and you provide those growth and development opportunities, they won’t have a reason to leave, and you’ll attract even more top talent. It’s a powerful opportunity for companies to capture the loyalty of hardworking employees who want to invest in their future and the future of your business. Start creating a high-development culture today: Download our latest perspective paper, Building a High-Development Culture Through Your Employee Engagement Strategy. Learn what Gallup recommends for a transformative learning and development strategy for your company. Get our bestselling book, It’s the Manager, to learn more about how managers play a key role in creating your ideal culture. Rob DeSimone is a Gallup Consultant based in Washington, D.C. Jessica Buono contributed to this article. Related Topics Include: Article CliftonStrengths Culture Development Employee Engagement Leadership Learning & Development Millennials Performance Management Profitability Retention Workplace Gallup at Work Newsletter Get the insights you need to create an exceptional workplace. Subscribe to the Gallup at Work newsletter to get our latest articles, analytics and advice. * Email Address * Country or Region I’d also like to be among the first to know about new Gallup offerings and services. I understand that I may unsubscribe from these offerings at any time. Recommended

    Original article appears here: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/269405/high-performance-workplaces-differently.aspx?utm_source=workplace-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WorkplaceNewsletter_Jan_01212020&utm_content=whattheydodifferently-CTA-1&elqTrackId=d70ff841135e453c850d4e8572f3becd&elq=88f3f8febfec49ed937b26c4fb54216d&elqaid=3132&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=696

  • TED Talks: Books about business and professional growth 2019

    Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Change by Stacey Abrams (TED talk: 3 questions to ask yourself about everything you do)
    I work in government affairs, and the last thing I enjoy reading for pleasure are books by politicians. However, this book is different on so many levels and is a must-read — whether you’re a political junkie or just someone seeking inspiration to chart your own course. I instantly related to and was inspired by Abrams’s candid struggles to overcome self-doubt and embrace the full range of her abilities as a talented woman of color. Her writing is candid, eloquent, familiar, funny and highly digestible. I found myself nodding, smiling, dog-earing pages, and taking deep inhalations to digest her inspiring wisdom. (Read an excerpt from the book here.)
    — Nikki Clifton (TED talk: 3 ways business can fight sex trafficking)

    The Content Trap: A Strategist’s Guide to Digital Change by Bharat Anand
    In the rapidly changing environment of the digital age, entrepreneurs, business professionals and nonprofit leaders all need to understand how people interact with content. Focusing on good content without intentionally considering the connections that content generates is “the content trap” that hinders progress, growth and sustainability.
    — Alvin Irby (TED Talk: How to inspire every child to be a lifelong reader)

    Dare to Lead: Brave Work, Tough Conversations, Whole Hearts by Brené Brown (TED Talk: Listening to shame)
    This is my favorite of all of Brown’s books. I’ve read all of her previous books, and I appreciate that this one allows the reader to revisit important points from the earlier titles. I read Dare the weekend it was released. It came at a time when I was going through some personal and professional challenges and helped keep me grounded and focused.
    — Liz Kleinrock (TED Talk: How to teach kids about taboo topics)

    Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull
    Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull takes readers inside how the animation factory makes their sausage. This book is one of the most intimate looks behind the scenes of a company’s culture, and the impact it has on the people, business and product. I highly recommend it for anyone who thinks deeply about improving the culture of their organization.
    — Joe Gebbia (TED Talk: How Airbnb designs for trust)

    Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built by Duncan Clark
    I enjoyed this very inspiring book about the personal and professional life of Alibaba founder Jack Ma. Ma’s likable and easy-going personality makes the book very inspiring and fun to read, while also providing interesting insights as to how he managed to establish one of the highest-valued companies in China and the world.
    — Pierre Barreau (TED Talk: How AI could compose a personalized soundtrack to your life)

    Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins
    This is my all-time favorite business book on why values matter and what good leadership looks like.
    — Halla Tomasdottir (TED Talk: A feminine response to Iceland’s financial crash)

    Good to Great by Jim Collins
    This book is full of extraordinary insights into how to manage an organization based on rigorous research. I also love the intercalated stories that help bring home points, like the Admiral Stockdale Paradox, a concept I have lived by both in my work and own life.
    — Pardis Sabeti (TED Talk: How we’ll fight the next deadly virus)

    The Big Idea by Donny Deutsch
    This book will always hold a very dear place in my heart because it was given to me by my younger sister, who is now of blessed memory. The book was to encourage me in my entrepreneurial journey, as I switched from a corporate career in the US into the unknown world of starting and running an enterprise in Nigeria. It’s filled with stories of entrepreneurs saying ‘There’s got to be a better way of doing this,’ asking, ‘How can I provide an innovative solution to this problem?’ and forging ahead to change the world with their ideas. A must read for anyone who is thinking about taking the entrepreneurship route.
    — Achenyo Idachaba (TED Talk: How I turned a deadly plant into a thriving business)

    Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less by Tiffany Dufu
    This manifesto/memoir is a reminder of how women are expected to succeed at two full-time jobs — the paid one outside the home and the unpaid one at home — and how we need to be realistic about our expectations in order to be successful at both.
    — Grace Kim (TED Talk: How cohousing can make us happier and live longer)

    The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth by Amy Edmondson (TED Talk: How to turn a group of strangers into a team)
    This is the definitive guide to creating the conditions under which human beings can collaborate, innovate and thrive. It’s the book you want when you’re trying to do hard things with other people (for example, trying to get back from that desert island).
    — Frances Frei (TED Talk: How to build and rebuild trust)

    Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life by Francesca Gino
    I first heard Gino speak on NPR’s Hidden Brain podcast about the role of rebels in creating real and profound change. At the time, I had been reflecting about how to acknowledge and honor my lived experiences and allow them to inform my professional work. Her evidence-based take on rebels as innovators and positive change agents — as opposed to the stereotypical person in arms against the opposition — inspired me to lean into my own authentic rebel talents and to break some rules along the way.
    — Leah Georges (TED Talk: How generational stereotypes hold us back at work)

    The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
    This is one of those must-reads for any business reader, especially people who are interested on lean manufacturing. Insightful and full of a-ha moments, it’s a business book that’s cleverly disguised as a novel. Surprisingly easy to read, it’ll rock your management self and make you see your company and your organization in a new light. It covers productivity, strategy, change management — you name it!
    — Julio Gil (TED Talk: Future tech will give you the benefits of city life anywhere)

    Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant (TED Talk: Are you a giver or a taker?)
    This highly insightful read by an organizational professor at Wharton Business School examines the link between our success and our interactions with others and the surprising forces that affect why some people rise to the top of the success ladder while others sink to the bottom. It’s a great book that encourages you to let your heart and values guide much of what you do at work.
    — Leila Hoteit (TED Talk: 3 lessons on success from an Arab businesswoman)

    The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip and Dan Heath
    This is technically not a book about moments, despite the title; instead it’s about what creates powerful experiences and memories. It’s really helped me think through planning events in business — and in planning experiences with my family.
    — David Burkus (TED Talk: Why you should know how much your coworkers get paid)

    Athena Rising: How and Why Men Should Mentor Women by W. Brad Johnson and David Smith
    I met Johnson and Smith, two amazing men, when I was writing my book about stopping sexual harassment and gender inequality. Through their eyes, I saw that these could be men’s issues too. Here, they provide the perfect guidebook for helping men be the mentors that women need them to be — and show us all how this is a fight that men and women need to engage in together.
    — Gretchen Carlson (TED Talk: How we can end sexual harassment at work)

    Re-inventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux
    This book is about the rise of self-management as a new and future form of organization. Laloux shows how a number of extraordinary organizations, from nursing to power generation, have reinvented their management practices simply based on a different perspective of how we could relate to one another. Their workers have flourished and their market share has grown. I love this book because it is at once practical and inspiring.
    — Hilary Cottam (TED Talk: Social services are broken. How we can fix them)

    Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan, John King and Halee Fischer-Wright
    One of the most challenging, rewarding and surprising things about being a professor is how much of your thought, time and energy is spent building and leading a team. After all, most faculty are PhDs, not MBAs. Tribal Leadership is one on a short list of books that I draw on in order to go beyond the traditional teacher/scholar model and try to build a team environment where super-smart students work together to solve super-hard problems.
    — Dustin Schroeder (TED Talk: How we look kilometers below the Antarctic ice sheet)

    Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility by Patty McCord 
    As the longtime head of talent at Netflix and co-author of the legendary Netflix Culture Deck, McCord (TED video: 8 lessons on building a company that people enjoy working for ) has penned an incisive treatise against traditional HR practices. In short, digestible chapters, she explains how paying top dollar, firing anyone who isn’t an A+ performer and training employees on how businesses operate all helped Netflix become one of the most successful media and technology companies in the world.
    — Jason Shen (TED Talk: Looking for a job? Highlight your ability, not your experience)

    Creative Change: Why We Resist It and How We Can Embrace It by Jennifer Mueller
    Dr. Mueller’s research on how we react to new and innovative ideas has had a fantastic impact on her field. In this book, she outlines a plan for overcoming the resistance to change.
    — David Burkus (TED Talk: Why you should know how much your coworkers get paid)

    The Heroine’s Journey by Maureen Murdock
    I’ve read the book many times, and sometimes I just re-read a section out of it. It’s on my bedside table and in my Kindle, and I have found it a huge support during various phases in my life in the last 15-plus years. Most life journeys have been written by and about successful men. This book helps you understand the deep patterns in the journeys of successful women — showing what drives us to success but also to over-exhaustion — and how we can integrate masculine and feminine forces in our lives.
    — Amel Karboul (TED Talk: The global learning crisis — and what to do about it)

    Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
    We are swimming in distractions from email, text messages and social media, all of them stealing away our attention. Newport (TED Talk: Why you should quit social media) brings us some hopeful news: placing our concentration and effort on creating work of value is still a top-tier skill. Then he maps out a path to recovering this skill for those who may have lost it.
    — David Burkus (TED Talk: Why you should know how much your coworkers get paid)

    Jugaad Innovation: Think Frugal, Be Flexible, Generate Breakthrough Growth by Jaideep Prabhu, Navi Radjou and Simone Ahuja
    This book goes a lot beyond other business books and speaks not only about the need to be agile but also the need to be frugal in developing countries in order to fit the consumer and context of these nations. I find this book extremely hopeful as it shows how simple, cost-effective solutions can change the world for the better.
    — Mileha Soneji (TED Talk: Simple hacks for life with Parkinson’s)

    inGenius: A crash course on creativity by Tina Seelig
    This wonderful book shows how everyone is creative. Through examples from her own work, others in the design thinking field and history, Seelig (TED Talk: The little risks you can take to increase your luck) provides a wealth of tools and techniques to help everyone uncover their creative potential.
    — Elise Roy (TED Talk: When we design for disability, we all benefit)

    The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp
    Tharp is a dancer and choreographer, and I understand very little of that craft but I was drawn to her book when I saw it sitting on a table at a bookstore 15 years ago. She is a pragmatist and a true original. Her book is a terrific source of battle-tested advice about hard work, surviving failure, and living a creative life. I often find myself thinking about its lessons and retelling the stories in my own talks.
    — Tim Harford (TED Talk: A powerful way to unleash your natural creativity)

    US Army Survival Manual: FM 21-76 by Department of Defense
    There’s a ton of really great stuff in this book that applies to business and life, especially in the beginning. A sample tidbit: “The greatest enemies in a combat survival and evasion situation are fear and panic. If uncontrolled, they can destroy your ability to make an intelligent decision. They may cause you to react to your feelings and imagination rather than to your situation. They can drain your energy and thereby cause other negative emotions. Previous survival and evasion training and self-confidence will enable you to vanquish fear and panic.” Overall, the first few chapters of the book read like a business or personal psychology book if you replace combat with business — or even daily life.
    — Chieh Huang (TED Talk: Confessions of a recovering micromanager)

    Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed by Frances Westley
    Westley was my instructor in a conflict resolution course many years ago, and I have read this book multiple times. I learn something new each time. However, the main message I got from it when I read it the first time was that when trying to change the world (in whatever field you work with), it’s important to stop every once in a while and really think about what you are doing. It is OK to change plans, it is OK to change strategies, it is OK to revamp. Sometimes we are so deeply involved with what we do and the methods we use to reach our goals that we do not even see when it is not working.
    — Patricia Medici (TED Talk: The coolest animal you know nothing about and how you can save it)

    Taking the Work Out of Networking: An Introvert’s Guide to Making Connections That Count by Karen Wickre
    Who knew connecting with others for one’s career could be so authentic, observational and reciprocal? In this practical, delightful read, Wickre reveals a whole new kind of networking for our increasingly transactional digital world. Full of insights and helpful tips, especially regarding social media, this is the perfect book for anyone in the midst of a career transition or considering one. (Read an excerpt from the book here.)
    — Chip Conley (TED talk: What baby boomers can learn from millennials at work — and vice versa)

    Go here to see the other book categories in the gift guide 

    Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely
    Ariely (TED Talk: How to change your behavior for the better), a professor of psychology and behavioral economics, reveals through many studies why we so often behave in a way that totally contradicts logic. While reading it, I had to smile many times because I could see myself behaving exactly like the studies’ subjects. After reading Irrational, you may be a bit more gentler with your own and others’ irrationality. You will also know why getting something for free does feel so good.
    — Hannah Bürckstümmer (TED Talk: A printable, flexible, organic solar cell)

    How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett 
    I had the pleasure of meeting Barrett (TED Talk: You aren’t at the mercy of your emotions — your brain creates them) at a TED event where we both spoke. Her book clarifies and, ultimately, debunks many myths about our emotions and how our brains creates them. It’s an interesting and thought-provoking read, and I found it to be engaging and fascinating. I strongly recommend it to anyone who thinks they can “read” people just by looking at them. (You can read an excerpt from her book here.)
    — Simone Bianco (TED Talk with Tom Zimmerman: The wonderful world of life in a drop of water)

    Willpower: Why Self-Control Is the Secret to Success by Roy F. Baumeister and John Tierney
    I love this book because it explained so many things to me … about me. Willpower is, quite clearly, a primary tool for success in work and love. And this book is packed with gripping stories about those who have struggled with temptation (from Oprah and Eric Clapton to Henry Morton Stanley and more) that vividly illustrate how to engage this precious fuel, willpower, to win in business and romance. And I finally know why, after days of being soooo good, I get to an airport and go wild on sweets. This book reaches deep into those most fascinating topics: human nature; how the brain and body work; why we do the things we do; and how to battle our darker angels to succeed in life.
    — Helen Fisher (TED Talk: The brain in love)

    Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone by Brené Brown
    Brown first came to my attention through her TED talk (The power of vulnerability). I was struck by the courage it took her to be so honest — to acknowledge that being vulnerable doesn’t mean being weak. In this book, she again shatters the myth that having the courage to stand alone doesn’t isolate us. Instead, it brings us into a fuller experience of community. This message meant a lot to me after I was forced by take a stand by myself.
    — Gretchen Carlson (TED Talk: How we can end sexual harassment at work)

    Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown 
    This book is all about having courage. Based on 12 years of research, it explains how vulnerability is both the core of difficult emotions like fear, grief and disappointment and the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, empathy, innovation and creativity. If we want to lead full lives, Brown (TED Talk: The power of vulnerability) encourages us to step into the arena in all aspects of our lives and dare greatly. She writes, “When we shut ourselves off from vulnerability, we distance ourselves from the experiences that bring purpose and meaning to our lives.”
    — Christine Porath (TED Talk: Why being respectful to your coworkers is good for business)

    The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in the Age of Distraction by Matthew Crawford
    Did you think being an individual was to be free of all relations and encumbrances and demands? Think again, says Crawford. We are a social animal, and we only become ourselves when attending to the demands of that which allows us to lose our detached self-possession.
    — Sajay Samuel (TED Talk: How college loans exploit students for profit)

    Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain (TED Talk: The power of introverts)
    Regardless of where you happen to fall on the introvert-ambivert-extravert spectrum, I highly recommend this insightful and accessible book. Touchingly personal and well-researched, this book is what inspired me to pursue social psychology during my doctoral program. At this crossroads in US history, it is particularly relevant to understand and celebrate the traits that define each of us as leaders. I am so happy I consumed Quiet via the audio version, since the book’s takeaways really come to life through the understated yet powerful delivery of the narrator.
    — Dana Kanze (TED Talk: The real reason female entrepreneurs get less funding)

    Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
    Want to understand happiness? In this book, Csikszentmihalyi (TED Talk: Flow, the secret to happiness) describes a state of consciousness — which he calls “flow” — in which people typically experience deep enjoyment, creativity and a total involvement. He also demonstrate the ways that this positive state can be controlled and not just left to chance. By ordering the information that enters our consciousness, we can discover true happiness and greatly improve the quality of our lives.
    — Lisa Dyson (TED Talk: A forgotten space age technology could change how we grow food)

    The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias by Dolly Chugh 
    This is such a thought-provoking read for all of us, given the societal issues today. Chugh (TED Talk: How to let go of being a “good” person and become a better person) argues that we might be better off by not striving to be perfect when it comes to the hot-button topics today but by being good-ish. (Read an excerpt from the book here.)
    — Chieh Huang (TED Talk: Confessions of a recovering micromanager)

    How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton
    Marcel Proust wrote well over one million words replete with deep insights and observations about human nature, but who has the time to read that much? Luckily, de Botton (TED Talk: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success) has distilled Proust’s work into a delightful, witty and wise book about the human condition. It can inspire hope by making you realize that so much of we feel is “modern society unhappiness” is actually a part of human nature.
    — Sebastian Wernicke (TED Talk: How to use data to make a hit TV show)

    Astonish Yourself: 101 Experiments in the Philosophy of Everyday Life by Roger-Pol Droit
    Droit is a great French philosopher, and I was so glad when the English-language version of this book came out. I always keep a few copies of it at home to offer as gifts to good friends. It contains very simple experiments to discover the subconscious and unexpected processes in your brain, and it’s great inspiration for those of us who build technologies and create new kinds of experiences.
    — Rebecca Kleinberger (TED Talk: Why you don’t like the sound of your own voice)

    Grit by Angela Duckworth
    In this compelling and interesting read, Duckworth (TED Talk: Grit — the power of passion and persistence) explores the concept of grit. Through numerous real-life examples of high achievers, she examines the idea that they possess a combination of passion and perseverance — not just talent. This book really resonated with me, a person who sees herself as possessing grit. It made me recognize that much of my success in athletics, work and life has been due to my effort and unrelenting determination, despite my not being the fastest or most talented. I hope that I can teach my own daughter to have grit.
    — Minda Dentler (TED Talk: What I learned when I conquered the world’s toughest triathlon)

    One dominant belief in our culture is that inherited intelligence dictates so much of our success, despite copious examples to the contrary. Duckworth’s research, which is clearly explained in this book, helps spread the good news there’s more to the story of what drives success — and more that we can do to enhance everyone’s chances.
    — David Burkus (TED Talk: Why you should know how much your coworkers get paid)

    Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck (TED Talk: The power of believing you can improve)
    Dweck’s treatise on growth versus fixed mindsets has been extraordinarily influential in my professional and personal life. One of the greatest things that holds us back from reaching our full potential is fear of failure. By believing that we can grow and change our abilities through hard work and grit, we can get past that fear and unlock all sorts of possibilities in ourselves.
    –Margaret Gould Stewart (TED Talk: How giant websites design for you and a billion others)

    Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think and Do by Jennifer Eberhardt
    Stanford University professor Eberhardt draws on years of her own rigorous academic research and the work of others to effectively break down how bias insidiously operates in each of our lives — as perpetrators, victims, bystanders and helpers — every day. The deeply moving personal and professional experiences that she shares help facilitate a tangible connection to this important subject matter. A must read for scholars and laypeople alike, this book reaches beyond the merely descriptive to prescribe courses of action that have been found to be effective in combating our unconscious bias.
    — Dana Kanze (TED Talk: The real reason female entrepreneurs get less funding)

    Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
    It’s hard to walk through a library without stumbling on a book about happiness, but this one is my all-time favorite. Gilbert (TED Talk: The psychology of your future self) shares fascinating insights from scientific research on happiness and shows us how our most fundamental assumptions about what will make us happy often turn out to be wrong. This book is so entertaining and funny that I can’t read it in public because it makes me laugh out loud (so it’s perfect for a desert island!).
    — Elizabeth Dunn (TED Talk: Helping others makes us happier — but it matters how we do it)

    Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert 
    Forget what you think about Eat, Pray, Love. Gilbert (TED Talk: Success, failure and the drive to keep creating) has a phenomenal lens on how creativity really works. Throughout the book, she reminds you that if you take creativity off a precious pedestal and just keep working on something, magic does happen.
    — Rachel Botsman (TED Talk: The case for collaborative consumption)

    The Philosophical Baby: What Children’s Minds Tell Us About Truth, Love and the Meaning of Life by Alison Gopnik
    This fascinating book offers an intriguing dive into the minds of our young and how they develop and function. Gopnik (TED Talk: What do babies think?) encourages us to revisit many of our assumptions on these subjects and to confront anew the the meaning of life and other philosophical big questions. Whatever your take on her overarching point — that our children can enlighten us adults — her book is bound to make you think and to find hope in the miracle of the human mind.
    — Isaac Lidsky (TED Talk: What reality are you creating for yourself?)

    The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz
    This book s a collection of deeply moving stories of self-discovery by psychoanalyst Grosz. His writing about therapy has been described as “like a combination of Chekhov and Oliver Sacks.” Whether it’s finding and keeping love, facing trauma in a family history, or confronting the most sensitive personal or professional vulnerabilities, this book brings hope by showing that humans have the capacity to heal — even bloom — when living with life’s most painful emotional scars.
    — Alexandra Sacks (TED Talk: A new way to think about the transition to motherhood)

    Shared Reality: What Makes Us Strong and Tears Us Apart by E. Tory Higgins
    Columbia University professor Higgins introduces readers to his fascinating social psychological theory of “shared reality” with patience and passion. Although the theoretical underpinnings run deep, readers can easily forge an intimate relationship with these findings. Perhaps the ultimate “desert island” book topic, shared reality enables us to better understand our innate yearning to connect meaningfully with others. More important now than ever, this book helps us be better parents, friends, partners, coworkers and community members by sharing what is real about the world around us.
    — Dana Kanze (TED Talk: The real reason female entrepreneurs get less funding)

    How To Be Idle: A Loafer’s Manifesto by Tom Hodgkinson
    This is a funny, eye-opening guide to why and how we are living is making us so miserable, but we can’t even say that, let alone object. This book explains how we were not always so work obsessed; instead, work was integrated into our lives, which were more than what we did to earn money. Plus, there’s a great chapter on why we do hangovers all wrong.
    — Simone George (TED Talk with Mark Pollock: A love letter to realism in a time of grief)

    Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
    Learning to be ‘present’ in your life and to appreciate every single moment is certainly a wonderful skill to have. Being mindful has made such a difference in my life — most significantly in adapting and accepting the acute discomfort that I live with as a double amputee. Practicing mindfulness has enabled me to include pain into my positive idea of what it means to ‘feel’ life — the full spectrum of what it means to be alive!
    — Gill Hicks (TED Talk: I survived a terrorist attack. Here’s what I learned)

    Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
    Kahneman (TED Talk: The riddle of experience vs. memory) shares what he has learned in decades of research — a wonderful, clear and simple analysis of our embedded self-delusions and the ‘dual-process’ model of our brains.
    — Tom Hulme (TED Talk: What can we learn from shortcuts?)

    The World as Laboratory: Experiments with Mice, Mazes and Men by Rebecca Lemon
    Even if we are influenced, shaped and controlled in our behaviors and actions, at least we are free inside — right? Not so, argues Lemov in his book. The attempt to engineer the interior space of people began over a century ago with the field of behavioral psychology, and its subsequent history is chillingly recounted in this scholarly yet accessible book.
    — Sajay Samuel (TED Talk: How college loans exploit students for profit)

    Doing Good Better by Will MacAskill 
    “Effective altruism” is one of the most important new social movements, and this book is a great introduction to it. MacAskill (TED Talk: What are the most important moral problems of our time?) is a philosopher from Oxford who explains how a lot of our intuitions about how to help the world are misguided, and how we can make a bigger difference in the world with some simple shifts in our behavior.
    — Julia Galef (TED Talk: Why you think you’re right — even if you’re wrong)

    Improv Wisdom by Patricia Ryan Madson
    This book is a refreshing change from the usual self-help psychology in that it introduces you to improv and its principles and applies them to everyday life. I enjoyed learning more about the art of improv and having the opportunity to think about how I approach life and to try something different. It’s also a concise, well-organized book that is easy to revisit over and over. I recommend trying improv if you can — it’s unbelievably fun.
    — Sabine Doebel (TED Talk: How your brain’s executive function works)

    The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body by Steven Mithen
    This is a brilliant read for anyone who is passionately connected to music. Mithen brings together psychology, evolutionary biology, neuroscience, archaeology and more to uncover just how deeply music is embedded in our species. Immensely readable, quirky and full of insight into our human condition, this book drops my jaw at least once per chapter.
    — Meklit Hadero (TED Talk: The unexpected beauty of everyday sounds)

    The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe: How to Tell What’s Really Real In a World Increasingly Full of Fake by Steven Novella
    Novella is right up there with Carl Sagan as people who taught me the joy and humility that comes with understanding how our brains actually work (or don’t!) in our quest to understand the cosmos and ourselves. This is the ultimate guide to critical thinking, with all the charm and irreverence that Steve and the other “Rogues” bring to their weekly podcast of the same name. As the subtitle suggests, this book comes at a time when we need it most.
    — Matt Russo (TED Talk: What does the universe sound like? A musical tour)

    The Wizard of Oz and Other Narcissists: Coping with the One-Way Relationship in Work, Love and Family by Eleanor D. Payson
    This incredibly insightful book details the underlying motivations and behaviors of those with narcissistic personality disorders. It also describes the interpersonal relationship characteristics between individuals with NPD and others at work and at home. In a world filled with increasing self-absorption, it’s is a terrific read.
    — Susan Robinson (TED Talk: How I fail at being disabled)

    How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan
    If there were one book that I could make everyone read — outside my primary life’s focus of reforming our system of agriculture — it would be this one. In short, psychedelic drugs can be used as therapy for everything from addiction and depression to the existential angst that accompanies the dying process for many people. Pollan (TED Talk: A plant’s eye view) brings his exceptional storytelling skills and his journalistic sense of skepticism to the history and the current science around psychedelics. Riveting, fascinating and enjoyable.
    — Bruce Friedrich (TED Talk: The next global agricultural revolution)

    Practical Ethics by Peter Singer 
    This is a great book for someone who wants to consider how they could live a more ethical life or better understand some issues in applied ethics. It’s an extremely well argued, compelling book addressing topics relevant to all of us. You don’t have to agree with everything that Singer (TED Talk: The why and how of effective altruism) writes in order to find it thought-provoking and worth the read. In terms of books that changed my life, this one is right up there.
    — Sabine Doebel (TED Talk: How your brain’s executive function works)

    The Power of Meaning: Finding Fulfillment in a World Obsessed with Happiness by Emily Esfahani Smith
    I was inspired by Smith (TED Talk: There’s more to life than being happy) after meeting her at the 2017 TED conference. There is so much of American culture that’s reliant on happiness, and her book is a good reminder that we might be focusing on the wrong things and perhaps meaning is a better focus for us.
    — Grace Kim (TED Talk: How cohousing can make us happier and live longer)

    Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson
    This book forces me to be self-reflective and recognize when cognitive dissonance enters my decision-making process. Citing numerous historical examples in which this psychological phenomenon has negatively impacted outcomes, Tavris and Aronson brilliantly show the reader how we can identify dissonance in our choices, ultimately helping you make better decisions and foster better relationships.
    — Kelly Richmond-Pope (TED Talk: How whistle-blowers shape history)

    Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness by Richard Thaler
    This book really added another perspective for me. It explained why we all make — quite often — unwise choices due to a lack of information. Not to spoil the punchline, but I found it very interesting that the cause of making bad decisions can be found within ourselves.
    — Matthias Müllenbeck (TED Talk: What if we paid doctors to keep people healthy?)

    Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living by Krista Tippett
    This book is full of the same kind of nuanced, wide-ranging intelligence about what makes us human as her radio show and podcast, “On Being.” You’ll close the last page feeling intelligently hopeful about how our wounds actually do serve to make us more wise and connected.
    — Courtney Martin (TED Talk: The new American dream)

    The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars and Save Our Lives by Shankar Vedantam
    What role do unconscious biases play in how we make decisions when we buy, think, vote, judge and convict? What we don’t know about what we believes shapes much more about our lives and our actions than we realize. The author does a great job of educating readers about the role of unconscious bias in a page-turning, interesting way.
    — Casey Brown (TED Talk: Know your worth, and then ask for it)

    Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment by Robert Wright
    Wright (TED Talk: The evolution of compassion) writes with a combination of humility and wisdom, summarizing the best research on the science behind Buddhist practices in an approachable manner. This book makes me feel hopeful that there is a life beyond our human neuroses, no matter what form they take, and it’s a great read for both skeptics of meditation and experienced meditators.
    — Mara Mintzer (TED Talk: How kids can help design cities)

    Go here to see the other book categories in the gift guide 

    Do these recommendations look familiar? They’ve been curated from TED’s reading lists 

    Originally appears in: https://ideas.ted.com/gift-guide-books-about-business-and-professional-growth/?utm_source=recommendation&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=explore&utm_term=giftguide

  • Don’t Wait for an SOS – Teams that Need Help Aren’t Always in Crisis

    In an increasingly collaborative working world, healthy professional relationships are often the key to getting things done efficiently and effectively. Yet when it comes to development, many organizations focus almost entirely on individual development – of leaders, of high potentials, even of at-risk employees – and leave team development on the back burner until a crisis rears its head. While advocating for team development investment can be a challenge when there’s an absence of urgency, I would argue that foregoing team development is leaving money on the table – both by allowing inefficiencies to fester, and by generating costly turnover from employees who are less than satisfied. 

     

    When we started exploring how to create a tool that would help teams, we wanted to make sure we built something that wouldn’t just work in crisis or conflict. We wanted to build something that would help any team operate more effectively by revealing sources of friction, imbalance, or bias that linger below the surface. 

     

    The IDI Team Development Report was designed to do just that – help any team work more effectively by operating from a deeper level of self-awareness and team awareness.  And it’s been exciting to start hearing stories of this tool is working in the field, helping a wide range of teams improve the way they function. 

     

    In a new Case Study, longtime MRG partner Uli Otto of lrb Solutions shares the story of coaching a team that was struggling to build strong connections. The organization’s leaders were genuinely caring people who were struggling to signal their caring in a way that the rest of their team could experience it. The organization had been reeling from some recent change and upheaval, and there was something about the way these leaders were communicating that was leaving their employees a little lost. 

     

    Uli employed the new IDI Team Development Report to build an engagement that would help six key employees develop a deeper understanding of each other on a motivational level. She used the report in combination with other tools and a few of her own signature exercises (the “Troll in the Woods” exercise is a personal favorite of mine!) to guide the team in a direction that would help them reach their goals of forming stronger team connections and working together more effectively. 

    In a forthcoming case study, we’ll explore developing a team that’s experiencing much more obvious friction. But for many organizations, the need for team development isn’t a distress signal – it comes from an organizational need for everyone to operate more effectively. 

     

    Download this case study here. 

     

    AUTHOR: 

    Lucy Sullivan 

    Lucy is the Head of Marketing at MRG. She’s a passionate people person who talks with her hands even when she’s on the phone. She will not rest until everyone on earth has taken their IDI.

  • How to Upgrade and Update Your Coaching Tools Affordability

    By CB Bowman, MBA, CMC, BCC, MCEC

    Have you noticed that the price of becoming certified in various top-line coaching instruments has dramatically increased over the past few years? It is not uncommon to pay over one to two THOUSAND dollars for certification AND the fees do not include the cost of travel, hotels, and meals. Even if you consider taking the on-line certifications, the price can still be thousands of dollars. What is worse, some of the top certifications don’t allow you to become certified in their instruments unless you apply through a sponsoring organization, even if you have been in private practice for over 10 years!

    THE SECRET SOLUTION:

    The MEECO Leadership Institute, the sister organization to the Association of Corporate Executive Coaches, attempts to help coaches solve this cost problem through its annual Silent Auction fundraiser. The auction offers professionals the opportunity to purchase tools at a greatly reduced price.

    SAMPLE INSTRUMENTS:

    Coaches or organizations can bid on items such as:

    · MARSHALL GOLDSMITH STAKEHOLDERS CENTERED COACHING, which is a disciplined practice that helps coaches learn and apply a proven process for leaders to use for effective behavior change. The methodology has a remarkable track record of success as measured by those who work with the leader and assess the level of improvement through the mini-survey tool.

    · MRG’S (MANAGEMENT RESEARCH GROUP) THE LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS™ 360° which offers an expansive, holistic, and unparalleled view of your current and emerging leaders and provides a clear roadmap for growth and increased success.  The LEA 360™ measures 22 leadership behaviors grouped into six core functions, creating a uniquely insightful profile that provides a nuanced and scientifically sophisticated development tool.

    · BIRKMAN PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT CERTIFICATION, this is a scientifically developed, multi-dimensional assessment, The Birkman Method, provides personality and occupational data to help understand individuals’ unique behavior and work satisfaction across different situations and industries. The Birkman Method reaches further into personality than any other assessment, allowing for individuals to understand not only who they are, and why they are.

    · AIIR CONSULTING’S TEAM EFFECTIVENESS SURVEY PRACTITIONER GROUP CERTIFICATION is an interactive virtual group certification session. You’ll engage with like-minded practitioners to discuss principles of effective teaming. Participants will be able to interpret and discuss sample reports, and get equipped with powerful tools to help teams overcome the obstacles holding them back.

    · DR. TERRY HILDEBRANDT’S COACHING SUPERVISION (6) 1 HR SESSIONS. Coaching supervision is a collaborative learning practice to continually build the capacity of the coach through reflective dialogue and to benefit his or her clients and the overall system. The goal is to provide executive coaches a supportive and appreciative space in which to reflect on their practice with clients, clarify what works well, and explore aspects of their practice that can be strengthened.

    · And much more!

    WHY PARTICIPATE?

    The silent auction is a tremendous opportunity to increase the tools in your professional portfolio BELOW the authors/publishers SRP (suggested retail price). Here is a chance to save as much as $500 on several items! It is easy to participate since the auction takes place on-line and ends with a live auction on Oct 18 at the MEECO Institute’s Gala (https://meeco-conference2019.org/). However, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ATTEND THE GALA to participate!

    HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

    Bidders have the option to play-the-odds by placing a bid on-line, OR they can use the on-line buy-now option, which would prevent anyone from over bidding. Even the buy-now option is a substantial savings compared to the retail cost.

    To place your bid visit: https://www.32auctions.com/organizations/50316/auctions/62250

    Bidding is now live and closes Oct 18, 2019.

  • Leading across Borders: Using Data to Inform a Global Workforce

    There’s no denying that, in ways both personal and professional, we are more globally connected than ever. In fact, the flow of information internationally has increased more than 250% since 2001, according to the 2018 DHL Global Connectedness Index.

    Many of us also hold stereotypes about different countries. Some common stereotypes are accurate but at least as many are inaccurate. So how do we know which is which? Stereotypes are based on experience, whether it is our own or something we hear from others. However, an individual can only collect a limited amount of data on any particular group.

    To gain a more accurate understanding of how people – leaders in this case – behave, we need to rely on large sets of data that accumulate the experiences of many different individuals. To this end, MRG recently conducted a study of 144,665 leaders working in 18 different countries to determine how much countries really differ in their overall leadership practices.

    Not surprisingly, Canada and the United States were more similar to one another than they were to any of the other 16 countries in this research. Similarly, Spain and France were more similar to one another than to any of the other 16 countries. However, the research also revealed that Switzerland is more similar in its leadership practices to Brazil than it is to Germany. This may surprise some of us who assume that geographic proximity is more important that other factors.

    What does this mean for coaching? As more and more leaders find themselves working internationally and developing professional relationships that cross borders, coaches need to make a greater effort to understand variations in leadership effectiveness around the world. This is critical both for support leaders in developing the behaviors that are most relevant where they work, and to support them as they navigate the sometimes choppy waters of a global business environment.

    Findings like these, which take advantage of the experiences of many different individuals around the world, will continue to help us identify real differences in leadership practices, facilitate our global interactions, and maybe even make us think twice before we make any assumptions.

    For the complete study, download the whitepaper Think Globally: Variations in Effective Leadership around the World here.

    AUTHOR:

    Maria Brown

    Maria is Head of Research at MRG. She loves a challenge and often gets a little too excited about running new studies. She finds peace and balance by cooking (as long as her husband is doing the cleaning) or being anywhere near the ocean.

    View original publication here